If you wanted to build a house, of what should you build it? In a new country, people generally use wood; but after a time wood grows expensive. Moreover, wood catches fire easily; therefore, as a country becomes more thickly settled and people live close together in cities, stone and brick are used. Large cities do not allow the building of wooden houses within a certain distance from the center, and sometimes even the use of wooden shingles is forbidden. Of late years large numbers of "concrete" or "cement" houses have been built. Our grandfathers would have opened their eyes wide at the suggestion of a house built of sand and would have felt anxious at every rainfall lest their homes should suddenly melt away. Even after thousands of concrete buildings were in use, many people still feared that they would not stand the cold winters and hot summers of the United States; but it has been proved that concrete is a success provided it is properly made.
What is the main idea of this passage?
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Correct Answer: A
The correct answer is "Cement is a more practical building material than wood." Most of the passage emphasizes the reasons why cement is more practical than wood--the author mentions cost as well as fire safety, and discusses how these buildings have been a success. The main focus of the passage is on cement as a good replacement for wood in house-building, and not on respecting elders, difficulties finding housing for the population, or the accessibility of wood.